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HOUSTON – A tweet from the National Rifle Association triggered a week of war of words between the NRA and the country's doctors, including doctors working at the medical center.
It all started with a summary document written by the American College of Physicians entitled "Reducing Firearm Injuries and Deaths in the United States".
It was published by the Annals of Internal Medicine on October 30th. Doctors said that gun violence continued to be a public health problem in the United States and required the immediate attention of the nation.
About a week later, the NRA tweeted:
"Someone should tell the anti-gun doctors to stay on their way." Half of the articles in Annals of Internal Medicine insist on gun control, but the most upsetting, however, is the community. Medical seems to have consulted NONE. "
The tweet has been retweeted more than 1,300 times with more than 22,000 responses; many of which include #StayInTheirLane or #StayInYourLane
"There is always an emergency doctor watching Twitter somewhere," said Dr. Cedric Dark of Ben Taub Hospital.
Dark is one of the many doctors in the Houston area to use Twitter to explain how armed violence is part of their lives. Many doctors have posted photos showing bloody emergency rooms, operating theaters or bloody clothes; shared graphic photos to show how often they treat victims of armed violence.
"About 500 to 600 a year, in our emergency department," said Dr. Dark about the average number of gunshot victims Ben Taub has seen each year. "And it's just enough for people to go to the Czech Republic, many people are dying in the street."
#StayInYourLane is the last point of contention between the doctors and the ANR. Doctors advocate studying the impact of gun violence on public health.
The Centers for Disease Control have not been able to conduct studies on gun violence since Congress, in 1996, introduced a provision in an expenditure bill – which was approved – which states that none of the funds available for injury prevention and control at the CDC should be used to defend or promote gun control.
"We have to study it from a medical point of view, as we do with everything else," Dark explained. "Motor vehicle collisions, heart attacks, strokes – these are the things we see every day in an emergency, and the information we have is so limited."
© 2018 KHOU
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